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Old October 8, 2010, 10:28 PM   #26
rmocarsky
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Warhammer,

Didn't apologize, but did feel like I could have easily interrupted a costly theft.


Now . . . when he barks, I DO check it out, and if it is nothing important to me, I treat him with all friendliness and say something like, "You knucklehead; people are entitled to walk up the street" and give him a pat.

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Old October 8, 2010, 10:52 PM   #27
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So what do you all do to stay prepared and alert to any potential dangers? Is there being to0 alert, like becoming paranoid?
Contrary to what some folks claim, nobody is always prepared and alert all the time to any potential dangers. It just isn't possible to always be prepared and alert.
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Old October 8, 2010, 11:51 PM   #28
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de-sensitized, or cautious ?

Everytime a topic such as this comes up, and folks talk about getting armed at the first sound of a possible intruder, I think of the teenager that decided to 'spook' her dad upon returning from a date at the wee hours of the morning. Her dad was one of those guys that was not going to be surprised and often took to roaming the house with his gun ... just to protect the family mind you.

As it turned out that night, dad must have heard a noise and when he saw a shadow-figure he fired. His daughter died in his arms. When I think of this event, I always wonder what goes through his mind on her birthday.

Be cautious, at the risk of appearing desenitized.
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Old October 9, 2010, 04:38 AM   #29
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Thanks Merle,

Here's an excellent example of the "Woof-GRRRrrrr-Woof-Grrrrrr" that means Who's that or what's going on?.

Doberman Security Alarm
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Old October 9, 2010, 06:34 AM   #30
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My dog sleeps at least 20 hours a day. When he is not sleeping he is eating, playing, walking with us or reacting to contact. He wastes no sleep time on false alarms. If he is reacting I am reacting too.

Quote:
Everytime a topic such as this comes up, and folks talk about getting armed at the first sound of a possible intruder, I think of the teenager that decided to 'spook' her dad upon returning from a date at the wee hours of the morning. Her dad was one of those guys that was not going to be surprised and often took to roaming the house with his gun ... just to protect the family mind you.

As it turned out that night, dad must have heard a noise and when he saw a shadow-figure he fired. His daughter died in his arms. When I think of this event, I always wonder what goes through his mind on her birthday.
I read a similar story about how the girl jumped out of the closet. It was very tragic. I already talked to my kids about it. We don't play dumb games like "hide in the closet after lights out". If I am getting up, the wife is getting up too and checking the kids.
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Old October 9, 2010, 01:30 PM   #31
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I live alone with 2 big dogs out in the boonies. The dogs do bark at coyotes, but it is a different bark than when someone is around. I can easily tell the difference & always check out a warning bark. Their bark when my girlfriend comes over is all together different. Learn to listen & read what your best friend is telling you. I have a gun hidden, but within easy reach, in every room & usually one on me. Paranoid? No! Prepared!
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Old October 9, 2010, 05:53 PM   #32
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Our new Daughter in law.

The 5th of Sept. my Wife and I were very proud to be there for our youngest Sons wedding in Sacramento (Only a City Stick with me, Glock safe in safe in Florida) me not Safe! In California.

I made a comment about must find a way to travel with my Glock! I was only joking, she appeared to be terrified!

Not sure how their first visit here is going to be? Sitting in front of the Lap Top just now, Glock 19 in right pocket of robe, cell phone in left.
I am always armed, day or night, paranoid? no, but I know just how long it takes for a teenager to go from A to B. I also know a 9mm projectile is faster than one of them, or I.

Nothing worth stealing outside, our Jeep is indoors, could some one break in? Sure, not a good idea when we are in, monitored alarm when we are out.
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Old October 9, 2010, 08:57 PM   #33
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Familiarity breeds contempt.

So the barking dog, after hearing it time after time, makes it seem it's no big deal and does not raise an alarm in the mind.

Either train the dog to ONLY bark if strangers approach, or get a different alarm system.

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Old October 9, 2010, 10:17 PM   #34
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Quite a few years ago a professional burglar was interviewed on television and according to him the most effective warning system anyone can have is a barking dog. Their hearing is far superior to ours and they bark when they hear or see anything or anyone they are not accustomed to. When my Pomeranian alerts I respond.
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Old October 9, 2010, 11:26 PM   #35
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Coopers color codes

You don't see it much anymore, but Coopers color code awareness thing was a pretty slick system to keep one thinking and avoid complacency.
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Old October 10, 2010, 07:31 PM   #36
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Just because you are paranoid does not mean that they aren't out to get you!

But seriously, I believe in being prepared. As I type this, my S & W .38 snub is in my pocket. Either it or my Ruger LCP is always there. In my living room my Ruger P97 .45 is quick to hand. A Ruger P89 9 mm is handy in my bedroom.

Am I paranoid? I don't know or care. I know that a very tiny percentage of the people will ever need to use a gun for self defense. Even most cops never have to use their gun on duty. However, if you are one of those who do, for you it is 100 percent.

In my younger days, I spent several years as a cop. I saw that random acts of violence do occasionally happen to ordinary people just going about their daily lives. They did nothing to provoke it nor were they in a "bad" location.

I remember a situation that occurred when I was about 12 years old. I was with my father when we were accosted by a car load (I believe four) of young punks. They were very beligerent, aggressive, and threatening toward my father and I. That is until Dad produced his Colt 1911. It was amazing how quickly their demeanor changed. They couldn't get away from there quick enough. I might point out that this was in a very rural area with the nearest law about 20 miles away. And we were on our own property.
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Old October 10, 2010, 10:49 PM   #37
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Deaf Smith...

... on the one hand, I see your point, but on the other hand I have to respectfully disagree.

1) Look at BillCA's post; you can learn what your dog's different barks mean. Additionally, you can pretty easily learn their body language. In my case, almost all of my dogs have historically run toward the door or window if they sense another animal, or just something fairly normal going on. When they have actually felt threatened, they have tended to assume defensive postures either near and in front of the lady, or near (and possibly slightly behind) me.

2) Look at TheNatureBoy's post; I've also seen studies that indicate barking dogs are major deterrents.

Therefore, I don't see training the dog not to bark as being a plus. The only dogs I can see a utility in training to be silent would be dedicated attack dogs, for which I don't have a use.

Last edited by MLeake; October 10, 2010 at 10:52 PM. Reason: changed tenses in p.1 to reflect dogs over time; I don't have an enormous pack (3 currently)
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Old October 10, 2010, 10:57 PM   #38
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Constant state of alert

As DoubleNaught Spy already mentioned, it's not possible to constantly be in condition red, or whatever you like to call it.

This is why Battle Stations on a US Navy ship, as an example, is only set for periods of hours at a time, and not days or weeks at a time. It is very mentally wearing, and rapidly exhausts watchstanders.

If heightened states of readiness are required for a ship or base, watch durations may need to be shorted and rest periods increased.

If military personnel, ages typically from 18-30 have difficulty with prolonged states of heightened watchfulness, then how are most normal folks, often significantly older, going to sustain such?

I'd say, let intelligence inform when you should deliberately heighten awareness. (IE, relax at home unless something out of the ordinary happens; don't constantly worry about muggers while watching a movie at a busy theater, etc)
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Old October 10, 2010, 11:08 PM   #39
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Dogs and the stink of fear...

BillCA raised this point earlier in the thread. I know of at least two cases in my family where it has come into play.

Case 1) Massachusetts, 1980's. My dad's cousin was home alone, kids in school, husband at work, in rural, central Massachusetts. A floral delivery van pulled into the drive. Delivery guy rang the bell, said he was trying to find an address, but couldn't find the road. Could he please come in and use the phone?

My dad's cousin let him in the door. Immediately, her German Shepherd, "Pup" (the name should tell you just how aggressive the dog usually was) began growling. The man asked, "does she bite?" My dad's cousin, the light bulb now coming on over her head, said, "do you want to find out?" The guy left.

My dad's cousin called her husband and told him what happened. Her husband told her to call the cops. Cops came out in some numbers, 20-30 minutes later. They told her a serial rapist had been hitting their area, using the ploy of being a lost flower delivery man. They had a task force looking for him.

The officers also told her that since she lived out far enough in the sticks to expect response times over 20 minutes, she really should get a gun. She followed that advice.

Case 2) My ex had interrupted a domestic battery in progress at a public beach bathhouse. The female (victim) ran away. The male (assailant, puncher/choker) made a move to threaten my ex, but my ex was at the beach with some USMC friends of ours. (I was deployed at the time.) The guy backed off, for the time being.

My ex rode with the jarheads back to where they'd met up, at a local biker bar we tended to frequent. They all hung out at the bar for a while. She then got in the 4Runner and drove up through the mountain pass, down the other side, and to our house. She went to let our dog (Rottweiler/Shepherd mix, around 55lbs) out, and opened the gate to the backyard, which was below the level of the front yard.

As she and the dog started down the staircase, Bella (the dog) started growling and bristling, and moved against my ex's leg, staring down into the backyard. Looking where Bella's attention had fixed, my ex saw the guy from the beach, plus a friend of his, in our backyard and moving toward her.

They froze when they noticed the dog. My ex ducked quickly into the house, and grabbed her Beretta Brigadier 9mm from its hiding place by the door. She came back out off-safe and cocked. Between the dog and the gun, the two guys tore off, and jumped the back fence, leaving some denim from one's jeans snagged on the fence.

Note: Bella loved people in general; we used to take her to off-leash parks all the time. She'd let unknown little kids climb on her back. She NEVER reacted to people the way she did on that occasion.
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Old October 11, 2010, 11:25 AM   #40
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For what it's worth, being alert and prepared doesn't translate to shooting anything that moves and scares you. All of us should have a training focus on identifying their target. Even if you have a "clean" shoot, you may run into trouble down the road if you can't clearly articulate what you saw that made you shoot.
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Old December 12, 2010, 09:39 PM   #41
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In this society, there tends to be a misguided general feeling of safety, especially for those of us living in relatively peaceful suburbia.

It's imperative to always be prepared for danger. When someone opens the gate between my house and my neighbor's, I always check to see who it is. If someone is driving around looking at houses or acting suspiciously, I usually observe them.

I plan on eventually getting a guard dog and perhaps an alarm to supplement my firearms.

I do have trust issues and can be paranoid but that is a good thing (and it suits me well since I plan on becoming a LEO). Situational awareness means survival.
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Old December 12, 2010, 10:15 PM   #42
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I try to use the four tier system.

Condition
White - Oblivious to what is going on around you.
Yellow - Just trying to observe your surroundings and see what is happening.
Orange - You observe something or someone that makes you suspicious and act approriately.
Red - You have detected a definite danger and take approiate action

I don't go around constantly in Condition Red or even Orange. However I try as much as possible to stay in Yellow. I know that I don't always make it. For instance when in bed asleep I am in as Condition White as you can get. And right now as I type this in my house with the doors locked and lights on in the back and front and my .38 in my pocket and a 9 mm and a .45 strategically placed around the house, I am in White. However about a half hour ago when the pizza man made his delivery, I went to yellow when I opened the door (checked through the peephole first).

And there are times when I lapse into White when I should stay in Yellow. Because we can not always be in Yellow, let alone Red or Orange.
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Old December 12, 2010, 10:35 PM   #43
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Her dad was one of those guys that was not going to be surprised and often took to roaming the house with his gun ... just to protect the family mind you.

As it turned out that night, dad must have heard a noise and when he saw a shadow-figure he fired. His daughter died in his arms. When I think of this event, I always wonder what goes through his mind on her birthday.
This has nothing to do with her father "roaming the house with his gun" and everything to do with him shooting at an unidentified target.

It's extremely important to identify a target before firing at it. It's true that those who refuse to learn this lesson are better off without a firearm, but it's backwards to imply that the problem could be solved by not immediately arming one's self in response to a potential housebreaker.

If a person is going to have firearms for self-defense he must learn to use them safely. If he can't or won't learn to use them safely then the solution isn't to access the gun more slowly, the solution is to not have firearms at all.

Your post is tantamount to recounting a situation where a child was killed as a result of a person driving 100mph on a residential street and then implying that the problem was that the person driving should have left his car at home and walked that day. The problem isn't that the person was driving at the time, it's that the person was using the car in an extremely unsafe manner.

Similarly the problem wasn't that the father in your story had a firearm on him during the incident or that he accessed it too readily, it was that he used his firearm in an extremely unsafe manner.
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Old December 12, 2010, 10:43 PM   #44
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just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you
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Old December 12, 2010, 10:50 PM   #45
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The thing I catch myself doing all too often is opening the door when the bell rings. Even for someone I know to come to the house without letting me know they are on the way is considerably rude and nobody I know personally will do it.

And yet, I still answer the door when the bell rings. Nine times out of ten, it's a kid selling candy or candles but it's thoughtless and potentially dangerous.

Some home invasions are planned just that way. You open the front door and the guy's partner breaks in the back door.

Nowadays, my wife covers the back door if I'm approaching the front door.

But all that aside, I really believe I need to just stop answering the dang door when the bell rings.

And my wife keeps harping to get a dog. All y'all nearly have me convinced.

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Old December 13, 2010, 03:13 AM   #46
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Quote:
And my wife keeps harping to get a dog. All y'all nearly have me convinced.
Great idea.

A good guard dog can act as both an alarm and as an extra layer of protection.

Thinking about getting myself a Rottweiler once I get financially settled.
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Old December 13, 2010, 08:56 PM   #47
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The thing I catch myself doing all too often is opening the door when the bell rings.
I never just open the door when the bell rings. I have a peephole in the main door, a storm door with a deadbolt lock in it, and an outdoor light right beside the door. I keep both doors locked and the outdoor light on at night. If the bell rings I first check through the peephole. If nothing seems amiss I will put my hand in my pocket with the .38 and partially draw it. I will then open the main door but the storm door stays locked until I decide what action to take next. If it is an unexpected visitor that I don't know, they are not likely to get in.

During the day while I am at work, my wife follows a similar procedure. If the bell rings, she will check through the peephole. Unless she is satisfied with what she sees, she will not even open the main door. When she does open the main door, the storm door stays locked until she decides to let whoever is there in. Often when she does open the main door, she will just talk through the locked storm door.
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Old December 14, 2010, 08:49 AM   #48
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Judging from what I have heard, read and experienced, it is possible to be desensitized to danger, though not in the sense that most people here have taken it to be. I think most of the posters here have been referring to thinking they are in little or no danger, not exactly the same as desensitized to danger.

Many people work in dangerous jobs, such as mining, in where there is a real possibility of serious injury or death. Other such jobs include logging, some kinds of factory work, and some varieties of construction work. In one sense, people in those lines of work become desensitized to the dangers around them, which is not to say they necessarily become careless or that they ignore common sense safety rules. It's only that were safety the overriding issue, they would probably choose another line of work, if it were possible. At the same time, often these people take pride in having a dangerous job. Anything else is woman's work.

In the military, a similiar thing happens. While they (soldiers) are constantly being reminded of the dangers of their current occupation, at least while they are on active service, the become ineffective if they are overly concerned about it. Under the worst conditions, it is said people become fatalistic.

Probably these things have little bearing on ordinary people living in ordinary neighborhoods, yet serious accidents happen in the home all the time. What do people do who live in really dangerous places where war or rebellion is going on? I somehow imagine that wearing a gun around the house is uncommon even in those places. Why not? Because it loses the edge. True, in places like Kenya when the MauMau "problem" was going on, people might watch television with a revolver at hand. Is there a MauMau problem where you live?

Realistically, you are going to repond to what is happening in your neck of the woods, if anything, which is another way of saying that you have your own ideas of dangers and will act in a way that suits yourself.
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Old December 15, 2010, 08:27 AM   #49
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The dog barking can easily fall into the same category as the annoying car alarm that we all dismiss. As many mentioned already, dogs typically don't get up and starting barking.


Listen to your best friend... their only looking out for ya.
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Old December 15, 2010, 09:35 AM   #50
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The cowboy way

It was once said that a pistol allows a cowboy to fight his way to a rifle. My german shepherd dog lets me fight my way to my pistol, which leads to my rifle.

I have never not had a dog. When he barks, I listen. He knows a lot more about what's going on outside the house than I do.
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